WASHINGTON - After triggering a financial meltdown that caused historic job
losses and required a taxpayer bailout, big banks said they had learned
their lesson. Instead, they paid out $145 billion in total 2009
compensation, spent millions of dollars lobbying against meaningful
financial reform and have cut back on lending to consumers and small
businesses, according to a new online database and case studies
released today by the AFL-CIO. First launched in 1997, this year's
AFL-CIO 2010 Executive PayWatch exposes the egregious compensation and
lobbying efforts against reform from the 'big 6' Wall Street banks:
Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan
Stanley and Citigroup.

"This report makes clear that Wall Street has still not gotten the
message: Hard-working Americans will not be their ATMs," said Richard
Trumka, president of the 11.5 million-member AFL-CIO. "For those at the
top, it's business as usual and worse. Bank executives who took
massive taxpayer bailouts are now pouring money into lobbying on
financial reform. It's time for Congress to enact real financial
regulatory reform and make Wall Street pay to create the jobs they
destroyed."

Wielding more lobbyists than there are members of the U.S. House of
Representatives, the banking industry spent a total of $50 million
lobbying Congress in 2009. The 'big 6' banks profiled in 2010 PayWatch
spent nearly half of that.

Bank of America Corp., the nation's largest bank,
received $45 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout
money. Less than a year after receiving taxpayer funds, Bank of America
began lobbying on new regulations – spending $3,680,000 in 2009.
Thomas Montag, president of global banking and markets, received $30
million in 2009 compensation while retiring CEO Ken Lewis stands to
collect about $83 million in retirement.

Goldman Sachs freed itself of government oversight
by repaying $10 billion to TARP, only to pay out more than $16 billion
in 2009 compensation and benefits – about $500,000 per employee.
Goldman Sachs also wields one of the largest financial lobbying teams,
boasting 29 lobbyists, and spending $2,830,000 in 2009 alone.

Citigroup Inc. received $45 billion in TARP, and
the U.S. government is its largest shareholder. It employs the largest
amount of lobbyists of any financial industry company (46), and spent
$5,560,000 for lobbying expenses in 2009.

Morgan Stanley paid out $14.4 billion in 2009
compensation and benefits, an increase from the previous fiscal year.
Mirroring that increase, its lobbying expenses increased 15 percent,
boosting it to $2.88 million in 2009.

JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon oppose
the creation of a separate agency devoted to consumer financial
protection and believe that a systemic risk regulator should be
controlled by the Federal Reserve. In 2009 JP Morgan Chase boosted its
lobbying expenses 13 percent to $6.2 million – enough to pay for 30
lobbyists.

Wells Fargo & Co. paid off $25 billion in TARP
loans to end government oversight of its executive compensation and
then paid its CEO $21.3 million – the highest of any financial industry
executive. Lobbying on a number of regulatory reforms, it increased
expenses 27 percent to $2.9 million in 2009.

The AFL-CIO and its community affiliate Working America are engaged
in an unprecedented grassroots campaign to win good jobs and make Wall
Street pay to create them. In recent weeks, the AFL-CIO has held 200
events outside branches of the 'big 6' banks.

On April 29th more than10,000 people are expected to converge on Wall Street for a major protest.

Working America recently launched an "I am not your ATM"
(www.notyouratm.com) campaign to fight for financial reform. In total,
Working America will be speaking to 1.5 million people this year at
their homes on job creation and the economy.

"People are angry and won't stand for inaction on financial reform.
Just as Main Street already paid for Wall Street's greed, now working
people are letting big banks and Congress know that payment is past due
on the harm they've caused," said Working America executive director
Karen Nussbaum.

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The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions. The
AFL-CIO union movement represents 10.5 million members, including 2
million members in Working America, its new community affiliate. We are
teachers and truck drivers, musicians and miners, firefighters and farm
workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public
employees, doctors and nurses, painters and laborers-and more.

Further

Lord, what would John Lennon have made of the Trump monster? Marking Thursday's 36th anniversary of Lennon's murder, Yoko Ono posted a plea for gun control, calling his death "a hollowing experience" and pleading, "Together, let's bring back America, the green land of Peace." With so many seeking solace in these ugly times, mourns one fan, "Oh John, you really should be here." Lennon conceded then, and likely would now, "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."